I've seen some of the threads about burning a HD video to DVD, but can someone kindly give some advice of the most effective and economic way of transferring from HD Writer AE 1 to DVD to maintain quality of original HD. I was hoping to give a friend for Christmas a copy of the wedding video I took, but time is running out. Dixon's just said they thought I should be able to copy direct to a DVD-R, but the threads raise doubts.
Many thanks for any help.
P.S. The laptop is a Samsung R510 using Widows Vista (if that helps!)

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic